Luminate Tribe
The Luminate Tribe is a large, relatively prosperous, Tribal community within the Core Region, founded almost directly after the end of the Great War from the remnants of a research facility studying the effects of various forms of lighting and how such lighting could affect human interaction. Their tribes populace suffered, or perhaps benefited, from a gene that caused the majority of their populace to grow to heights of 7ft as a 'normal' height, either through a natural environmental change or one influenced by the radiation in their area. The tribe, around 2281, due to attempts to avoid any conflict or confrontation between itself and the New California Republic, alongside food shortages in their area due to lack of arable land, was forced to search for a new home further out in the wastes, whereupon the scouts sent out by the tribe arrived on the northern outskirts of Swallow Hills, taking up what was hoped to be permanent residence near said town, despite attacks by Lucan Seville's Acolytes and hostility from Swallow Hills itself, especially the Swallow Hills Militia. History The tribe was founded in 2087, a few years after the end of the Great War and at a time when radiation was polluting and changing the natural area of California. The tribe's descendants originated from a research complex that, prior to the war, had created and studied the effects of 'Mood lighting', something that the Big MT research facility had been researching for years prior. The research facility's members, though mostly scientists and maintenance workers, were comprised of some security guards and individuals with basic weapons training, or veterancy in the US armed forces. In the wasteland, a good majority of their number perished whilst moving from bombed-out ruin to bombed-out ruin, before finally stopping and settling a few miles outside of Los Angeles, still carrying some notes of their research and even actual designs of their research. Though new to the idea of this new existence, scavenging amongst irradiated and destroyed ruins of pre-war society, they eventually began to learn. Most of these people did perish, one too many mistakes being made on where it was and wasn't safe to take water from, whilst those who survived used their know-how to map out dangerous areas and where the highest volumes of radiation were recorded. The next generation of survivors, bred from these first survivors, viewed the world in a more mystical way than their parents did. Whereas the first generation survivors viewed it as a disaster of epic proportions, with the dust storms and fallout that dotted the sky and blocked out the sun being ample proof in their minds, their children came to revere what their parents talked about, with sighs of deep regret, the research they had carried out. These children came to view the sun, sometimes visible through the dust and debris, as a divine entity, and they came to revere the remaining prototypes and designs of their parent's mood lighting as gifts from this entity. As their parent's passed on and these children grew up, they began to tell the next generation, their children, about their version of events. In turn, these children came to view the new, post-nuclear apocalypse world as their parents had. In 2087, with the new second and third generations of survivors talking about these mystical deities and entities, the Luminate Tribe was formed, the word 'Luminate' having been taken from one of the now yellowed and torn research notes dragged across the wastes by the surviving research staff. These tribals would go onto form their capital, Dy-Oad, a year later in 2088, hidden in the empty wastes near a relatively irradiated river. This 'city' was formed in the side of a cliff face, with tunnels dug by the tribals into the sides that made for modest housing for the numerous tribals and their families and good defensive positions against the odd Raider attacks. By the early 2100s, the generations of tribals had swelled to a good hundred or so people, usually thanks to wandering travellers lost and confused in the desert whom were taken in by the tribe. The tribals could now also afford to set up outside of their caves, setting up small tents outside their caves. Upon their emergence, the tribals made contact with a few wastelanders, the latter of whom were surprised and even somewhat intimidated by a new trait that the tribals had, either gathered from the small traces of radiation that did, inevitably, get into the their subterranean home, or through an environmental change: a rather large height, about 7ft as an average. Their size allowed them to scare off and intimidate most Raider gangs, then prowling the Core Region in large swathes, and allowed them to avoid any confrontation with those who may have had better armaments than themselves. These tribals occasionally traded with other survivors wandering the wastes, though with a great deal of animosity between both the tribals and these wanderers, usually the meat and hides of the new creatures now swarming across the wastes that the tribals hunted, usually for medicine. On the few occasions that these wandering traders were carrying laser weapons or other, light emitting objects, the tribals would trade for them with anything they had found of value, then taking these objects and placing them within the various shrines around their caves and new, outside villages springing up around their cliff-side city. Around the mid early 2200s, namely 2217, the Followers of the Apocalypse began setting up charity missions to make contact with and aid the isolated communities, tribal and otherwise, on the outskirts of the NCR's territory. Despite NCR protestations against such efforts, the Follower's went ahead and began their charity missions. At first, the tribals were wary of these new arrivals, as they were usually with most, but following their efforts helping the tribe throughout the numerous charity missions carried out over the years, helping with every wound and illness from Radscorpion stings, in the case of Yano Kayan, then an initiate to the tribe's warrior caste, to Tuberculosis. Having won the tribal's trust, mostly, the Followers would continue with their charity missions until the NCR shut such operations down around the mid-to-late 2200s following Raider attacks. The Followers, reluctantly, withdrew from their interaction from the tribals, all except for Zara Luis, the young daughter of a doctor working with the Followers who had only recently been orphaned by one such Raider attack, who was adopted by her new 'uncle', Yano Kayan. Her years in the tribe would lead to her becoming an honorary Healer within it, due to her experience accumulated from her father, via observation and study. Following the Follower's withdrawal, the tribe continued to grow and, due to no knowledge of birth-control, eventually began to reach numbers far beyond the tribe's capacity to provide for. Within only a few years, namely 2281, the tribe was faced with two problems: the growth of the NCR to the North-west of their territories and the possible conflicts that this growth might bring between them and the NCR, and the minuscule farm land that the tribe had. Within a few years, the tribe could have faced starvation on a large scale thanks to it's continued growth. Desperate to avoid both problems, the tribal Elder's and Chieftain ordered the tribe's Braves and Scouts to scour the wasteland in the hopes of avoiding any conflict with the NCR, and to locate better, more arable farm land where the tribe could relocate and continue to prosper. Within mere months, Scouts had returned to report on the nearest land that had yet to be encroached upon by the NCR; Swallow Hills' outskirts, barren and wasted desert intersected by radiation-tainted swamp-like areas where subsidence had occurred. The Tribe moved to the outskirts of the town in early 2282, but was not initially as welcomed by Swallow Hills' prior residents as they had hoped. Thankfully avoiding violent incidents, mainly owing to Swallow Hills tenuous position, due to the attacks of Lucan Seville and his coalition of Raiders and the town's own fear of the tribe. Despite this, the two factions began trade; the demand for food from the tribe was intense, and the traders in town were all too happy to deliver on this demand, especially given the fact that the tribe had made the northern outskirts of the town safer to travel, opening routes that had, since 2269, been shut down by Lucan Seville's Acolytes. In turn, the size and general strength of the tribe's men and women drew interest from businessmen in town, forever on the lookout for skilled ranch hands and those with brute strength and physique, with both categories filled nicely by the tribe's populace. The tribe did establish friendly relations with individuals from the town, the likes of Gordon Potts, a skilled veterinarian and small-scale rancher with his own 'son', and, to a certain extent, Marian Lane, the owner of the Sampson Hotel and a savvy businesswoman keen to expand her own business links to the newcomers, but still to this day remains largely isolated. Led by a guiding light, no doubt. Hierarchy *'Chieftain' *'Tribal Elder' *'Master Elder Of The Light' *'Shaman' *'Master Healer' *'Healer' *'Tribal Brave' *'Master Hunter' *'Hunter' *'Warrior' *'Scout' *'Farmer' Relations With Other Factions *'New California Republic': The NCR ignored and continues to ignore the tribals, for the most part, uninterested in what they consider an undeveloped and unimportant group of people that's existence would neither aid nor threaten the republic. This attitude may well have changed as the republic expanded it's borders, and could have lead to the tribe being either wiped out or assimilated by the NCR had it not been for the acute self-awareness of the tribes leaders, forcing them to flee from the NCR's expanding borders straight to Swallow Hills. *'Swallow Hills:' Although largely on good terms with the town, many on both sides feel that their opposites cannot be trusted, with trade and other interactions done in extreme caution, especially by Swallow Hills traders, fearful of the tribe's size; both in terms of human height and population. *'Lucan Seville's Acolytes:' The tribe and Lucan's own Raiders are in a hostile relationship following various attacks by the latter. The Luminate Tribe's own warriors have proven more than a match for the odd Acolyte, but Seville's own skills have made him a feared entity in the tribe, adding further to his cult of personality and bringing a fear-factor to the table in the ongoing battles between the two factions. Notable Members *'Yano Kayan,' Tribal Brave *'Zara Luis,' Honourary Healer Category:Groups Category:Places Category:Communities Category:New California Republic